Urban Champion - NES (1984)

Urban Champion

Urban Champion

Urban Champion

Urban Champion is Nintendo's first foray into the fighting genre, and one of their only attempts. There are similarities to Karate Champ, but it does its own thing. Urban Champion is the earliest fighter with any kind of easily controllable defending. It invented evading, which in this game takes the form of quickly leaning and stepping back. This is performed by holding back before your opponent executes a attack. Most importantly it is the first fighter to have easily controllable, reliable blocking, which is performed by holding up or down before your opponent executes a high level or low level punch, respectively. It is also the first fighter with dizzies, the first fighter with a form of "ring outs", and the first fighter where matches were decided by something other than health depletion or point totals. The objective of the game is to knock your opponent out of the screen three times. After the last time he will fall into a open manhole. This is accomplished by tapping the A button for a low powered attack or the B button for a high powered attack, which will come out slower. Both attacks can be directed up or down by holding up or down and tapping the button to attack. Occasionally a cop drives by during a fight. Both fighters will return to their sides of the screen and goofily try "looking casual". If they are caught fighting they can be arrested. The character who is not arrested will win the match. While it does have a 2 Player Mode, Urban Champion lacks certain conventional elements that are present in even many other pre Street Fighter II fighting games. There is no jumping or ducking. There is also no health in a traditional respect. Instead the characters have "stamina". The stamina is represented by a number, which starts at 200 and is depleted by being hit by a opponents attack, executing a attack, or being hit by a flower pot falling from the building that the characters are fighting on the sidewalk in front of. If stamina reaches zero, it will cause a dizzy. Urban Champion is often known as one of the worst games Nintendo has ever made. Given their high quality of their later games, this is not an unfair label. For the time, it wasn't too bad, at least compared to other similar titles. It was also released in the arcades for the Vs. system, and has appeared in several re-releases, including the E-Card reader for the Gameboy Advance, and the Wii Virtual Console.

Urban Champion Urban Champion

Great Swordsman - Arcade / Playstation / Playstation 2 / Xbox (1984)

Great Swordsman

Great Swordsman

Great Swordsman

Great Swordsman - Taito's first fighter - is a sword fighting themed game with fifteen levels. The first three are fencing matches. The winner is determined by who is the first to land five hits against their opponent. If both players hit each other at the same time, they will each get a point. If the timer reaches zero any player currently standing on the mat will get a point. If you opponent steps off the mat twice during a round you will gain a point, as well. This make Great Swordsman and Urban Champion the first two fighters with a form of ring outs. Then a round where you deflect arrows. Then there are five levels of kendo. These are pretty difficult. The winner is the first to land two hits. Then a second arrow deflecting round. The rules about stepping off the mat, ties, and the timer apply here as well. The last seven matches are gladiator matches. These are really difficult. The first to land a hit wins. The loser will be killed when hit with their opponent's sword, making it the first fighter with fatalities. There is no timer, ties do not count, and the rule about the mat does not count here. After winning these, the game restarts at a faster speed. There are hit levels and three buttons. Each for a different level attack. Like in Karate Champ, buttons must be held. If they are released your character will revert to their standing animation. Moves can be defended against by intercepting your opponent's weapon with yours. This could be argued to make Great Swordsman the first fighter with countering, but the intercepting moves do not actually hit the opponent, so it is really merely a form of defending. It might be the first example of modern hit levels, as there are three that each need to be defended against differently. The real challenge is judging if your strike will land before your opponents, based on your position. Distance judgement is extremely important here, and timing is decisive in who wins a match. This keeps the gameplay intense, without it having to be a exceptionally fast moving game. Several years after it's original release this game was ported to the PC, the PlayStation 2, and the XBOX. Each as part of the compilation "Taito Legends". These are all straight ports with no enhancements or modifications.

Great Swordsman Great Swordsman

Karateka - Amstrad CPC / Apple II / Atari 8-bit / Atari 7800 / Commodore 64 / PC DOS / Famicom / ZX Spectrum / Gameboy / Atari ST (1984)

Apple II Cover

Karateka (Atari ST)

Karateka (Atari ST)

Karateka was the first game designed by Jordan Mechner, who would later go on to design Prince of Persia. If you are a fan of Prince of Persia, you will probably be familiar with Jordan Mechner's movie like approach to presentation in video games. Audio is what should be expected from a game designed by Jordan Mechner. It is, like Prince of Persia, treated like a film score. Music here is applied more as musical cues, rather than video game background music. Like Prince of Persia, the game's sprites were modeled after photos and videos of the designer's brother moving. This made Karateka the first rotoscoped video game and probably quite a technological marvel at the time. The combination of Jordan Mechner's approach to plot structure and musical scoring make for probably the most movie like fighting game ever made. My favorite details to the presentation are the battlecry that is made when the fighting stance is entered into, and that your opponent will bow if your characters does, potentially allowing for endless bowing matches. Also each enemy seems to have their own mask. I am not certain that they are all different, as I did not compare each of them. A nice touch, regardless. It is also possible to choose a victory pose after fights. Gameplay consists of fighting fodder enemy after fodder enemy with a equally generic karate character. There is a kick and a punch and there are buttons that determine their height. Each hit will deplete health points that can be regained by resting. While it does have the defining elements of a fighter, it plays more like Prince of Persia with multi hit enemies and without platforming. Plot wise, your character is attempting to save a woman named Mariko. To do this he has to make it past several enemies to the fortress of a man named Akuma. Then he must defeat Akuma. Like with Prince of Persia, difficulty here will drive you out of your mind. Besides the fights getting fairly difficult fairly quickly, there are things that are needlessly frustrating. If your character is not in his fighting stance (hold down to enter it) when hit he will be killed. This will probably result in running into a few fists before you learn to enter the fighting stance whenever a opponent shows up. There is also a bird that fighting off is both stupidly difficult and not very enjoyable. The worst part of all is the damn bridge. If you do not have any clue what you are doing going into that part of the game, good luck. The game was originally released for the Apple II. The Famicom port is my favorite, but it replaces the health points with a health bar and the height of attacks is determined by holding a direction. The Atari ST port plays horribly, despite being rather high end looking. The Atari 8-bit, amazingly, plays half decent. The Commodore 64 port look accurate and plays fairly faithfully. The Amstrad CPC, Atari 7800, PC, and ZX Spectrum ports are disasters, with horrid visual downgrading and/or redrawing and poorly responsive controls and/or bad game physics, and are best avoided. The Gameboy port was released exclusively in Japan with sluggish controls, and the abilities to adjust your character's stats and choose your starting level, and retitled Master Karateka. Besides being a relatively enjoyable game, it is interesting to see the point of origin of the elements of gameplay and presentation that would be reworked by Jordan Mechner for Prince of Persia. Especially to see them in a one of the earliest fighting games of all places. Also, at the end of the game your character must be out of his fighting stance (hold up while doing nothing else) before he approaches Mariko. She will KICK HIM IN THE FACE, KILLING HIM INSTANTLY (!) if he is not. If Mariko is such a badass, with her lethal kicking skills, why the hell does she need to be rescued?

Karateka (Commodore 64) Karateka (Famicom) Karateka (IBM PC) Karateka (Gameboy)

Onna Sansirou - Typhoon Gal - Arcade (1985)

Typhoon Gal

Typhoon Gal

Typhoon Gal

Onna Sansirou - Typhoon Gal is a Japanese exclusive fighter released for the arcades in 1985 and developed by Taito. Yuki, most likely "Typhoon Gal" of the title, is clad in a gi and is simply adorable. She cries when defeated (aww), and is overjoyed after beating a level boss (double aww). This is the first fighter with throws and grappling. While not in every level of the game, it is also the first fighter where multiple enemies are fought at the same time. Its fighting system is enjoyable, but definitely not conventional and will take adjusting to as a result. First approach a opponent and then, after initiating a grapple, tap a direction and one of two buttons. One of the two will perform a attack or change the character's positions. The second button is for jumping or, while in a grapple, performing throws. Throws are generally only possible when Yuki's opponent has their health depleted, but are the only way to win a match. When opponents are crawling away after a defeat in the indoor levels, Yuki can kick them in the butt for extra points. Yuki will regain health slowly by resting. This mean that is it wise to jump around like a maniac while fighting bosses to regain lost health. My only real complaint about this game is that despite the regenerating health, it is nigh impossible. There are two kinds of levels: indoors and outdoors. The indoor levels have several progressively more difficult opponents fought one at a time, but without Yuki regaining any health between opponents like most fighting games. The outdoor levels have Yuki fighting progressively more difficult groups of two opponents, again without regaining any health between opponents like most fighting games. Music here is a nice change of pace. It is cheerier than what is generally presented in a fighter. Graphics are great. There are cute animations and details here or there that benefit the overall presentation. Like a weird looking guy that pops out with a sign that says "NICE" after hurling a level boss through a wall. It also has the best high score table EVER. There are a several cute motifs that your name entry can be decorated with or be entirely comprised of. A sprite of the little guy from Taito's Chack 'n' Pop is among these.

Typhoon Gal Typhoon Gal

Shanghai Kid / Hokuha Syourin Hiryu no Ken - Arcade (1985)

Shanghai Kid

Shanghai Kid

Shanghai Kid

Despite Taiyo taking credit on the title screen, they did not develope this game. Shanghai Kid was actually developed by Nihon Game before they changed their name to Culture Brain and developed the cult favorite The Magic of Scheherazade. Its Japanese title, Hokuha Syourin Hiryu no Ken, reveals that that Shanghai Kid was actually the first game in the Hiryuu no Ken series, to be followed by the Flying Dragon games. The game involves moving a nameless fighter past several nameless opponents. Shanghai Kid's gameplay is different than most other fighters of the time. While fighting through a series of boxers, karate fighters, etc., a target will briefly appear on either of the two characters seemingly at random. At this point a move can be executed by tapping the attack button and a direction to execute attacks (if the target is on your opponent) or just a direction for blocks (if the target is on you). The matches end when a character's health meter or the timer are depleted. This game is extremely difficult so don't expect to get very far. However, the enjoyment of the game is the challenge. You are not going to enter the command quickly enough to execute an attack often. The worst thing about the game is that there is a minor health loss for entering a command when there is no target on screen. This is obviously to prevent button mashing, but you will end up doing it often even through normal play. Shanghai Kid is notable for being the first fighter to have a combo system. The combos are performed by button mashing at varying intervals when the game displays the word "rush". The combo will result in your character performing a series of strikes more or less identical to the custom combos from Street Fighter Alpha. Another important video game first was the inclusion of special moves. The special moves are very primitive and are performed by tapping both punch and kick at the same time.

Shanghai Kid Shanghai Kid

Galactic Warriors - Arcade (1985)

Galactic Warriors

Galactic Warriors

Galactic Warriors

Galactic Warriors was developed by Konami in 1985. It is the first fighter to have multiple playable characters, block damage, air blocking, character specific movesets for the playable characters, playable characters with projectiles, a modern health bar (as opposed to a health meter comprised of notches like in Mega Man), the ability to execute multiple attacks while airborne, and attacks of varying levels of strength. WOW! I'm amazed that a game this innovative (made by Konami of all developers) has been totally forgotten. There are three playable characters: Samson, A mid-sized robot with a sword; Gaea, a "female" robot with breast projectiles (!!!); and Poseidon, a bulky robot with an extendable limb. All of the characters move slowly and rebound off each other when they make contact. I assume that Konami wanted to make the battling robots seem realistic with these features, but they just make the movement awkward. The game has three buttons. One button cycles through three different kinds of attacks when the player taps it. There are three kinds of attacks per character: punch, kick, and a third attack unique to the character. This switch system isn't very intuitive and it would be much better if the game had three separate attack buttons. The second button executes your selected attack. The last button raises the characters' sheilds to block. Other than the playable characters, there are several non-playable bosses. Each of the bosses have original designs and unique attacks. Most of the bosses are beatable but the second to last boss is impossible. The only way I could defeat it was to keep jumping and wait for the timer to run out. The last battle is a mirror match, pitting you up against the same character you chose. After defeating the final boss, the game cycles and your character and every boss are given an extra weapon.

Galactic Warriors Galactic Warriors